Star Wars Episode 7 News

Friday, February 7, 2014

Meet Leland Chee form the Lucasfilm Story Group.

A very interesting article from 2008 shedding some light on the duties of the so called Lucasfilm Story Group and especially Leland Chee who together with Pablo Hidalgo is crafting a new and unified canon for the Star Wars franchise...

If you still don't know what Lucasfilm Story Group is, here's wiki's description:

The Lucasfilm Story Group is a division of Lucasfilm Ltd. founded in 2013 that will determine all Star Wars canon. The group, which includes Keeper of the Holocron Leland Chee, Star Wars author Pablo Hidalgo, Director of Creative Content Strategy Carrie Beck and Producer of Franchise Synergy Diana Williams aims to abolish the current canon hierarchy system and create a single cohesive continuity. The group began as an initiative from Kathleen Kennedy.

And here's the article about one of the members - Leland Chee. Although it's from 2008 it really gives you an idea of the duties and responsibilities of the group.

On the wall behind Leland Chee's desk is a portrait of an Ithorian, an alien with a hammer-shaped head that you glimpse briefly in the famous Star Wars cantina scene. In its leathery, foot-long fingers, the Ithorian holds a cube decorated with elaborate metallic tracings, a device known as a holocron. Think of it as a Force-powered hard drive, capable of storing an enormous quantity of information. "It's a piece of Jedi technology," Chee says. "It tells you ... everything."

To Star Wars fans, Chee is the Keeper of the Holocron, arguably the leading expert on everything that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. His official title is continuity database administrator for the Lucas Licensing arm of Lucasfilm—which means Chee keeps meticulous track of not just the six live-action movies but also cartoons, TV specials, scores of videogames and reference books, and hundreds of novels and comics.

Of course, Chee's Holocron isn't a Force-sensitive crystal. It's a FileMaker database, a searchable repository of more than 30,000 entries covering almost every character, planet, and weapon mentioned, however fleetingly, in the vast array of Star Wars titles and products. The Holocron isn't just for fun—when Lucas Licensing inks a deal with a toy company or a T-shirt designer, it vets those ancillary products to ensure they conform to the spirit and letter of the continuity that has come before and will continue afterward. In the past 31 years, Star Wars movies have grossed in excess of $4 billion worldwide. But retail sales of merchandise stand at $15 billion, and 20 percent of that has been earned since 2006, the year after the final film was released. Careful nurture of the Star Wars canon—thousands of years of story time, running through all the bits and pieces of merchandise—has kept the franchise popular for decades.So Chee spends three-quarters of his typical workday consulting or updating the Holocron. He also approves packaging designs, scans novels for errors, and creates Talmudic charts and documents addressing such issues as which Jedi were still alive during the Clone Wars and how long it takes a spaceship to get from Dagobah, where Yoda trained Luke Skywalker, to Luke's homeworld of Tatooine. The Keeper of the Holocron takes this very seriously: "Someone has to be able to say, 'Luke Skywalker would not have that color of lightsaber.'"

To Chee, the orderliness of the Star Wars canon is what sets it apart, what makes it feel more real than all those other franchises. "Look at James Bond," he says. "What's real in the James Bond world? What year does it take place in? It's not grounded in a real timeline." The Star Wars chronology, on the other hand, marks time from the Battle of Yavin, the assault on the Death Star at the end of the original Star Wars. Luke Skywalker was born in the year 19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). It says so in the Holocron.

Back in his office, Chee asks his database what else it has on young Skywalker. The result contains scores of fields covering lineage, favorite vehicles, the planet he's from, how to write his name in the Aurebesh alphabet. "Oops," Chee says, blocking the screen with his body until he has minimized the window. "There are things in the Holocron that aren't public knowledge, stuff coming down the pike two or three years from now." He won't say whether those secrets relate to upcoming books, movies, games, or toys. Probably all of them.

Lucasfilm has to plan ahead and think long term. "We don't reboot. We don't start from scratch," Chee says. "When Chewbacca died, he died." (Poor Chewie yowled his last yowl in 25 ABY, when he was stuck on the planet Sernpidal as it collided with its moon, Dobido, in the novel Vector Prime, the first book in the New Jedi Order series. His death is now canon.)

"The thing about Star Wars is that there's one universe," Chee says. "Everyone wants to know stuff, like, where did Mace Windu get that purple lightsaber? We want to establish that there's one and only one answer."

75 comments:

Chewbacca died in C-level canon, question remains if he died in G-Level canon (aka episode VII+)

Nice article but we all know until the story group descided what is the singular canon the old system remains and therefore the whole EU can be changed on a whim. I agree with Chee that Star Wars single time line is what seperates it from just about every francise out there and that's why I love it. However we've already been told VII won't be beholdant to the EU, meaning much of the timeline got the axe, so I'm willing to cave here if a) EU characters survive to become G-level cannon (such as Mara Jade) in Episode VII regardless of timeline changes when the higher level of continuity overrides it b) after this we finally get our single level of canon.

Edit: I'm fine with EU characters getting TCW reimagines as long as they're a bit more loyal to the core character if that is what it takes to make it into VII. I'd prefer no name changes, after all call a spade a spade imho changing the name is cop out and every diehard fan will know the difference and see it as such... be honest and upfront who they are. TCW already taught us old charcters can have new destinies.

How would it be a cop out? What if it is a SIMILAR CHARACTER, who's life was different? No matter what, several books are getting erased from canon. Keeping the names wouldn't change that. IF they keep both the names and characters, they will still be different ages.

Its a franchise. If you cut out character a but replace them with character b who is the same arc type and design but with 3 history changes its a copout that typically angers the fan base

If you keep the name and arc type but change the history its a reimagine which typically if well written fanbases respond well too and most understand.

You don't rename/replace Gordon in Batman, you include him or you don't include him in the story. Fans get too attached and will just see any replacement character as disrespecting the franchise. Since Mara was brought up, if you replace Lukes wife with anyone else you just insulted a big fan base and that fan base will be judging harshly the replacement character, thereby limiting the characters effectivness and the roles since a big corner of the market likely will reject said character on principle. Best just to adapt Mara Jade into VII... they could even adapt Jags Jade being her code name and not birth name, just as long as its Mara Jade as well.

"A big corner of the market". Star Wars is popular, but the Star Wars EU? Hardly. How many people became Star Wars fans quoting Jar Jar Binks, or from watching The Cone Wars, or will after they get drawn in from this film's advertizing?

Would they reject it? Really? You mean like they rejected the prequels, but kept watching? Especially not if these new characters are well written and acted. Not to mention, getting Chewie back from being killed, will work in the film's favor.

A bit of a digression there talking from replacing characters to chewie lives... you just made yourself sound like a loon connecting two independent ideas.

Yes I agree keeping Chewie alive is benifical to the franchise, however I strongly disagree about how small the EU fan base is... TTT trilogy sold 15 million copies at last count, even if half of those sales are repeat buys that's still 7.5 million EU buyiers. Go into any bookstore and talk to anyone in the scifi/fantasy section and odds are they've read some Star Wars EU, I've witnessed countless of these and joined in some myself. The Special Editions where funded in part by the EU, which in turn funded the prequals.

I agree with Anonymus above. Replacing charatcers from the EU but keeping their role is needlessly hitting a hornets nest. The Star Wars fan base is already divided due to the Prequals, its now four camps (OT, PT, EU, TCW) the ST should unit them not divide them including all facets of Star Wars, this includes EU characters which is the thing EU fans care about the most as a whole. Replacing them with all but the same charcters is just needlessly alienating a whole fan base, if VII has a role that an EU character fits it would be wiser to use them and capitalize on the EU charcters fanbase instead to further drive sales and hype the movie for them... free of charge too.

I see what you're saying and I think you're right that there would be a right way and a wrong way to navigate the cannon. If fans blame the creators of the content for there being four camps and potentially more that's the choice of the fickle fans who have their preferences. There's a lot of content and streams of content, it will never reconcile exactly the way each fan group might want. I say its up to each fan to either get over their feeling slighted (the previous material they loved will always exist) or enjoy the parts they like about it. This all leads to more star wars anyway, its a good thing. 40 years of movies sounds daunting to watch though haha.

But this isn't about what the fans accept in the end but what LFL and the Story Group does or doesn't do to include every fandom. The right way to do this, and what the special editions, prequals, and tcw did was include the eu. Why since it invites the most diehard fans ti watch, enjoy, and accept continuity changes since lfl at least included something for them. Imho tcw did it best

Well he did a shitty job on SWTOR ! A game were Jedi walks around on Coruscant with sith lords as companions while doing evil things and using red sabers and soo much more that you would never see in the movies as it would be neyond silly.

SWTOR was horrible in every way possible beyond the three trailers, hopefully it will be one of the first things the story group kills canon wise.

As lightsaber colors in video games and powers they've always been considered N-canon, or non canon, therefore Lee Chee never dwelt with it... he only approved that the story didn't break canon. Which of course it did since it really just pretended KotOR II was a sack of half truths, but it did it in a way that he was forced to say it overrode canon well by making it opinions and not infactual (though of course the changes where very poorly written, handled, and sold to the dumbest person in the room when KotOR aimed at the smartest) and will hundreds of millions spent on it he had all but no power to change it. So I don't blame Chee here but EA forcing Bioware to copout plot for a WoW reskin after LFL suggested a Star Wars MMO since they had dellusions of billions of dollar signs they'd get... when really they should have just kept KotOR hugely suggessful singleplayer franchise and made TOR a new a seperate MMO built to stand on its own rather than the fame of KotOR.

I don't think SWTOR was supposed to ever be considered canon. It was an online RPG designed for fans to have the ability to explore the world from the perspective of a character they've chosen. Not really a plot-driven game.

Agreed, reviewing the successes and failure of the EU is important to redefining what the new continuity should look like. Hence I feel that saying SWTOR was a total mess is a legit convo point here...

Agreed, Revan was the worst EU book I've read in ages. It utterly destroyed his character, reverted the exile to prekotor2 status and made her a Revan fangirl (and her name, Meetra, *cring*), then killed off everyone but Revan via a deus ex machina... saying if you want to know more buy the game.

Revan was actually a really good book UP UNTIL ONE SPOT. Let's just ignore the last 5 or so chapters. And the Exile's name was already canonically Meetra Surik. Excuse me while I go cry about how they kill off T3 with out any remorse.

First off you're incorrect Revan the book did indeed give The Exile the name Meetra Surik, the author himself (who I've meet and spoken too) freely admitted this on his web site. He even lists where he git the name idea from...

Now moving on to the quality of Revan the book, it wasn't ever 'really good' what it did to Canderous just giving him a wife then killing her was moronic, Meetra now just thinking the whole ending of KotOR II was just Kreia going nuts and then jumping down 5 ranks on the powerscale (even losing abilities that where canon events in the game no matter what you did), Darth Scourge the Sith who got teased because of his name was nausieating, then it just repeatedly told you how awesome Revan was but never really through devloping plot got a chance to ever actualize it (he literally rode off a high of how cool he was from KotOR I & II and because the book reminded you of it), etc...

And then... THAT ONE SPOT HIT.

Now don't get me wrong the book was fun if you didn't take anything seriously and where firgiving of it because you're a fan of Revan (heaven forbid you where a KotOR II fan in which case it was insulting from page one)... however the charcterization, short cut tropes it took, the way it treated everyone but Revan from second one as just Revan worshipers or his enemies was pathetic. The book was written just to close KotOR I and II and then trick those fans into buying TOR hoping it was all a sick force vision.

When you get a book that the author on his very own web site flat out warns you that even though this book isn't for fans of the two series it was closing but TOR fans you have a major issue. The very basis of the book was a lie and the wrong way to write a series... its like selling a Prequal fan a book on the cover but the content is 'bleep the PT I give you OT, ha, deal with it mentality' you have a book that never should have been approved. The Revan book was a marketing ploy, nothing more.

Yeah... I guess fun with a few asterisks is a better description of it. The sub-plot with Lord Generic Evil Name was the major aspect I enjoyed and I haven't touched the book in more than a solid year. I could've sworn that the exile was named before then but I guess I'm just remembering her being made canonically female. And if you find the book offensive... The "Flash Points" involving Revan...Ugh...those were disgusting.

I hate much of the EU (though have read it all, mostly), I agree I want the history of it retconned save minus a few general ideas... however I'd love quite a few EU charcters to survive this moon being dropped on their heads. After all some of them are iconic to EU fans and worked really well, so why not capitalize on them.

I should really brush up on my knowledge of the EU, if this talk around the internet is true and the ST will be barrowing concepts from the redefined canon. I've always been primarily a fan of the films, though.

From rumors I've heard it sounds like they're going to largely brick TCW, definitely a good decision because even ignoring EU it *painfully* contradictions the prequels. Not like anyone cares about that though.

Regardless of Chee and Pablo. JJ is where canon is right now, not even George as creative consultant. Kathy even stated movies over EU. If JJ wants Chewbacca and big green rabbits, he will fight for them and ultimately get them. Chewbacca needs to be in the next film, any only a slight mention of him being gone or somewhere else is cheesy. Coppola tried this with the Tom Hagan character in Godfather 3 because Robert Duvall wanted more money, the film suffered because of expectation. I'm sick of hearing main cast as big 3. It should be the big 6. They can illimnate Lando but not but Chewbacca! The Wookie needs to be in the next film, even if he is killed off in this installment. Chewbacca is over 200 I think he can out live his counter parts by a decade. He can stay for awhile longer.

I don't want to lose lando at all! but I think everything you said is true. I think it should be almost exclusively up to the top people creating episode 7 as to who they'd like. if they want to completely ignore ANYTHING that we thought we knew after ROTJ then go for it. Make a good movie and don't be restricted by a million story lines only the hardest of hardcore would know. Its first and formost a movie franchise. otherwise why bother with a movie.

I would love to see Lando as well! But if "Canon" was taken as the definitive, than Chewie is gone. The EU is a soup that too many pissed in. When Lucas opened the doors for the expanded universe in 1990 he wanted continuity where other franchise failed. But as it expands with multiple artists, and points of view, then there is a larger margin for error that expands. Expanded Universe is a great playing field but shall not be absolute, ( sometimes ideas get out that needed nixed in the first place) and it is near impposible to have perfect continuity. I hope Lando and Chewie are back but if I had to have the Wookie over Billy D. Then the Wookie wins!I will say it is time to really get the reigns on it and all in all we don't as fans have to take every idea suggested.

What is with the word "CANON?" Every article is the "the film Canon", the cartoon Canon, now the G-Canon and the A-Canon, who comes up with this crap? Marvel everything is phases. Next year Phase 3 comes comes out. Enough with the CANONS, just announce something for the Films already, these lame rumors and canons are getting on my nerves.

The word Canon was originally a biblical term used to define the core scripture of the original Bible. In this context, it refers to the material associated with a franchise (in this case Star Wars) that is considered to be the "true" events of the chronological story for continuation purposes.

The legitimate definition is: a general law, rule, principle, or criterion by which something is judged. So, as you can see AnonymousFebruary 7, 2014 at 8:04 PM, it's pretty important to get that all straightened out before adding new information to an ever expanding, fan-based franchise like Star Wars. We can't rush these things. Be patient for god's sake.

Well, I absolutely don't believe that the ongoing marketing of Star Wars has kept it interesting, it was merely kept economically relevant.But Star Wars IS and will ALWAYS be as relevant as it was back in 1977.Even if there was no Expanded Universe.

I have one question for Chee:What is 'real' in the Star Wars universe?

"What is 'real' in the Star Wars universe?" If you're asking this in a literal sense, that is completely irrelevent. This redefining has to be done in order for the continuing chronological story to make any sense whatsoever.

EU itself was constantly contradicting itself with different authors, views, and stories...boba fett is jaster mareel in one story, a clone in the movie...dengar is a boss bounty hunter nicknamed payback in one, and a complete klutz in the next,...admiral ackbar gets around fine in the movies and most books, then all of a sudden he can barely walk on land because he is a water breather...i hope they can fix all of this, but i really hope they don't center new movies around EU and i hope they tone down the new comics and novels and make them more inter coherent.

Agreed the EU is a mess, but Disney bought it and it has fans. What the story group imho should be doing is picking the best adaptation of each character and making that canon. Then letting these characters loose in the new continuity. Some makinbg it into the new movies, some into new tv shows, some into new books, and some into comics.

Example Luke has a kid in George Lucas's VII story but he needs a mom now clearly but she's not too heavly featured, so adapt Mara with what Lucas scribbled on his 12 page story treatment and keep her canon but now she's a movie character and a charcter tied to Luke in any backstories they later make.

Now let's say Disney wants to make a dark gangster/bounty hunter netflix show, but they need a jedi to play against them. So use Corran Horn who's a former cop (CorSec) and fighet pilot to be trying to track them down and bring them to justice.

Now Marvel wants stories tied into VII but doesn't want to mess with the main charcters too much, so use a kid of Han and Leia who wasn't a main in VII (let's say Anakin Solo (anakin can be his middle name) or Jacen Solo) and now they have there character who fits there , appeals to old EU fans, and one they have freedom with compared to one VII will be doing stuff with.

And the books not tied into the above need charcters too so let's give the Saba an amazing alien jedi who's now on the hunt for the villains from VII.

Now EU fans are very happy since charcters survived, LFL is happy since they have one continuity and the EU characters allow them to give each branch of stories already built fan bases that won't cross streams now beyond minor cameos for obvious reasons... plus movie only fans discovering this are amazed at how much LFL did and planned out in only a few years, not realizing they just adapted better EU story elements and then gave each surviving element better writters.

IMHO, the main issue is that the EU is and always has been a hot mess. Most of it always felt to me like glorified fan-fic, which was fine when there wasn't (as far as we knew) ever going to be a sequel trilogy. I've got a bunch of those books in paperback that I bought over the years to use as junk reading for my daily train commute.

But it was always disposable nonsense, and it eventually got to the point where I just plain lost interest. But even in the beginning, with the first Zahn books, I never felt that much of it was up to the level of the movies.

Which, again, was fine when there were not going to be new movies that would maybe have to account for all of this dreck somehow.

But to constrain ST filmmakers based on the writings of dozens of not-entirely-stellar EU authors is, IMHO, a massively bad move. Because lets face it... the vast majority of moviegoers don't have the first clue as to who Mara Jade or Jason Solo or Bland Admiral Thrawn are. They don't know who the Yuuzhan Vong are, or that Chewbacca was killed off by having a moon dropped on his head.

Not only is there no real reason to incorporate any of this into the ST if it's not what the filmmakers want to do, but let's also not forget that the more inter-trilogy offscreen events there are to account for in Episode VII, the more verbal exposition they'll have to piss away screen time on.

Yes, there is a segment of the SW fanbase for whom the sun rises and sets on the EU. The appeal of the films themselves, however, always has been and always should be far, far broader than that.

Look, George Lucas got away with tossing aside backstory elements from his own OT films when he made the PT. Why would the ST production team suddenly need to let their story be dictated by material that's not even part of the films?

Unless the suits at Disney are micromanaging the production at that level, I would hope that Abrams and company just write and film whatever they think is going to be cool and fun to watch, rather than worrying about accounting for the EU books.

I have to say I love this blog. I am a fan of the films and saw the original in the theater as a kid in 1977. I have always heard that Star Trek is wine, and Star Wars is Whiskey or Beer! And others have said that Star Trek is classical music and Star Wars is "Rock and Roll"! I love the intel you post here and it is great. Just thought I would comment guys. Oh by the way back in the 1990's when the Star Wars website came online just before the release of the Ep I there was a blog there as well. I remember a back and forth I had with someone on there about Lucas making VII through XI. I always knew Lucas had them planned, even after he made the comment about not making anymore. He is a genius in everything, marketing, non disclosure (was one of the first directors to make actors sign non-disclosure with contracts). At any rate if that person is out there that blogged against me. I told you so Brother! My real brother reminded me about this a while ago. Keep up the good work! And I have a feeling we will not be disappointed with this next one guys. ;) Seeing Luke as the Jedi Master as Vader would say! "The circle is now complete!". I do hope that Lucas will show Leia as a Jedi though let her have one scene at least where she shows off her powers! That would be awesome!

Oh and by the way the first movie I went to and I haven't been to another one since then where folks applauded during the movie was the Empire Strikes Back... Average folks applauding during a movie. I bet we will see that again when VII comes out...

This ryus character has too much time on his hands wow its called sci-fi fantasy for a reason and the hardcore fans who give a damn if chewy died and does or does not return make up like 5% of the actual sales from box office or merchandising.disney only cares about one thing.....making money and lots of it.appeasing hardcore fans is not on thier priority list .Appeasing the masses is.lol chill pill required me thinks lol

Jesus Christ! They killed Chewie! Those bastards!!! And its canon now? Fuck! I have to agreed that the EU novels are fucking junks! What next? Yuzhong fucking Vongs are canon? I hope not! I hated that creation because its lacks originality. Mother fuckers!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: leaver the Vong out of the films. We don't need Gwar in Star Wars.The NJO and Thrawn trilogy novels certainly aren't "junks," but I believe they should remain a fan-written books and let the films develope a fresh story; something we haven't seen that will leave us wanting more in VIII and IX.

While I loved the heroes facing a truly serious threat... the Vong are just so damned stereotypical sci-fi baddies. They came from beyond! They are nearly endless! They fight in ways we can't understand! Blah blah blah... it didn't feel like Star Wars. I think we all just loved visualizing epic Star Wars fleets trying to stop an alien menace.

Not gonna lie seeing a massive fleet of Republic and Imperial ships working together against a nearly unstoppable force is epic. However everything else that came with it just didn't feel right or Star Wars to me. This includes... SPOILERS... Jacen's fall to the darkside. It almost felt corny and not fully developed... still masterfully handled compared to Anakin's in the prequel though.

It'll be interesting to see what the hell really happens with the true canon.

As long as the new movies have lightsabers,jedi,space battles,drouds,cool planets and corny humour ill b satisfied.it will have been ten yrs since we have seen a star wars live action movie on the big screen .I dont know bout u all but im gettin withdrawals lol.I was seven when i first saw and heard that star destroyer roll across the screen and i cant wait for the next installment .Guys its called ep vii for a reason lol.Who cares bout eu ,i want to see what is going on 50 yrs later in the star wars saga .how many jedi did luke train.did leia learn the force.how much of the imperial fleet survived??? Is the republic still in power ?Im excited for casting news,and cant wait to see the trailers next year .Stuff "a" canon or "g" canon its too late the script is finished bring it on

Amen Brother! I am with you! I too saw the Star Destroyer in 1977 as a kid ride through the screen. It blew every other Sci Fi movie out of the water then. Special Effects that changed everything with models that were so real that CGI cannot even touch them now. This will rock with the old school stuff but updated!

I would also as you say like to see Leia with a lightsabre and use the force. Luke by Yoda was suppose to train her first. It will be cool to find out if he did. I bet she will have a purple blade. Money is on the table...lol

With the unification of the SW cannon, even the most brilliant future SW film makers will be constrained by narrative decisions made by the worst EU authors/designers under the most rushed conditions. It makes Star Wars far more dependent on whoever the weakest link happens to be.

Which is exactly why I don't think we're getting a clear picture of what this "canon unification" thing actually is. Because yes, if they simply say that all of the EU novels are canon alongside of the films, then they force future SW filmmakers to maintain story continuity with even the most half-assed throwaway SW novel.

They knew that by saying they were "unifying and redefining canon" every single Star Wars fan out there would hit the roof, not knowing exactly what is going to happen with that. It's a good first-step publicity stunt in the reintroduction of Star Wars to the world of modern film, where their best move would be to start with the fans and branch out to the rest of the movie-going audience as it the premier date draws nearer.

How can you not "brush aside" the debate of the SW EU!!!!!!!! lmfao.with characters that never fit in the timeline hmmmmm.ashoka,ventress,bringing darth maul back (ffs he was bisected theres no coming back from that lol how does he shit without an anus lol)oh then u have vaders apprentice in sw unleashed lol and clones of the emperor what a joke!!! A clone has no force abilities for a start .oh then there is bringing boba fett back um did u see the sarlaacs teeth they were curved inwards!!! No comin back from that either lol And now with the latest reason why the eu is a joke hmmmm .......THE INQUISITOR ......LMAO SW EU IS A JOKE so thats how i can brush off the eu debate oh and my personal worst scenario THEY KILLED OFF CHEWY !!!!!!! preposterous i say !!!!! Eu is pathetic as a whole its only bantha fodder for lfl to try out wat they want and think the "masses"will or could like

EU is not that popular, if you look at the comic book sales most SW (with a few odd exceptains) books out of the top 300 rarely score better than #100 and sell onlty a fraction of what Marvel titles like Avengers and Xmen bring.